FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 1, 2009

NORTH KOREA TO STAND TRIAL FOR SUPPORTING TERROR

For the first time, the government of North Korea will face charges of
supporting terrorism against Israel in a U.S. Federal Court.

The case arises from a lawsuit brought by the families of victims of the
1972 terror attack at the Lod Airport in Israel in which 26 people were
killed and 80 injured. The court complaint alleges that the government of
North Korea trained and financed the terrorists who perpetrated the heinous
massacre.

The families are represented by Shurat HaDin director Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner, the Osen Law group, attorney Robert Tolchin of New York
and attorney Manuel San Juan of Puerto Rico.

In May 1972, terrorists from the Japanese Red Army (JRA), working in league
with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), placed
automatic weapons, ammunition, and grenades in their check-in luggage on a
flight from Italy to Israel. When their bags emerged in Tel-Aviv at the
arrivals hall, they took out the weapons and opened fire in every direction,
mowing down passengers, flight crew members and airport workers. They also
attempted to blow up airplanes on the ground using hand grenades. Two of the
three attackers were killed, and a third, Kozo Okumoto, was captured, tried,
and sentenced to prison in Israel.

Most of the victims were Catholic pilgrims from Puerto Rico who had come to
visit the Holy Land for the first time.

North Korea was behind the attack. As the trial will show incontrovertibly,
in the months leading up to the massacre the leaders of the JRA and PFLP
met each other and with North Korean officials, who provided funding,
intelligence, training, and other material support for the terrorists. The
attack was part of the JRA's declared strategy of taking their anti-Western
violence and plans of communist revoultion to other parts of the world,
beginning with Israel-a strategy approved by the North Korean government and
its intelligence agencies.

This will be the first time North Korea is being held to account in a U.S.
court for its support of terrorism over many decades. It is widely known
that one of the world's most oppressive regimes is also a consistent support
of terrorism, including providing weaponry, training bases, and funding for
Palestinian terrorist organizations. They were also responsible for building
an enormous underground bunker system for Hezbollah that dramatically
increased the terrorist group's fighting capacity in the 2006 Lebanon War.
For this reason, the U.S. State Department put North Korea on its official
list of states that sponsor terror in 1988-a fact that makes it possible for
American victims to sue the North Korean government and collect against
their assets in a U.S. court. Although North Korea was removed from the list
late in 2008 for political reasons, the current lawsuit was filed on behalf
of the Puerto Rican families before the deadline for filing lawsuits, as
were two other lawsuits Shurat HaDin currently has pending against North
Korea.

The trial will begin on December 3 in the U.S. Federal Court in San Juan,
Puerto Rico.

FOR A COPY OF THE COURT COMPLAINT EMAIL: info@israellawcenter.org

Shurat HaDin Telephone: (US) 212 -591-0073, (ISRAEL) 03-751-4175

Visit our Website: www.israellawcenter.org